Survival In A Continuously Shrinking World
...Luncheon Address – Vancouver, BC
November 3, 2005
President Abrahamse, distinguished scholars, honoured guests, ladies and gentlemen:
I would first like to thank Prof. Karen Gould and Prof. Julia Wallace for inviting me here today. It is indeed a great honour.
I wonder how many of you remember what the world was like about 60 years ago, at the end of the Pacific War. Maybe most of you are not old enough. There was no such thing as air conditioning or T.V., and - can you imagine - you had to put your hand out to signal when you wanted to make a turn while driving a car. I still remember seeing on the news at a theatre about the first escalator installed in a London department store.
As a child, my world was the British Colony of Hong Kong. All our close relatives lived either on the island of Victoria or in Kowloon. Whenever we had a family gathering, such as Chinese New Year or Christmas, everyone could attend. Distances people had to deal with were very short then. Crossing the harbour to Kowloon by car was something one did only occasionally, because of the long line-ups at the car ferry. That was before the first cross-harbour tunnel was built. The concept of one’s friends or family living on another continent seemed almost unreal, due to the lack of technology. Making a long distance phone call was not an easy task; sending telegrams was the usual way to communicate. Most people had never been on a plane or on an ocean liner.
When I first came to Canada to go to university, USD$1 was worth CAN90c. That was 1959. I was in residence at McGill University, in Montreal, and some of the girls in residence asked me where I came from, and these questions were always followed by, “What is Hong Kong?” and “Where is Hong Kong?” I realized that there was very little knowledge of other parts of the world, especially among young people...
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